HB571 Alabama 2014 Session

Relating to Lauderdale County; to authorize and provide for the organization as a public corporation of a tourism board in and for Lauderdale County; to provide for the government of such tourism board by a board of directors, and for the election and terms of office of the members of such board of directors; to provide for the termination or dissolution of any then existing public body formed to promote or develop tourism in either Lauderdale County or the City of Florence, and for the disposition or transfer to such tourism board of the assets and liabilities of such public body; to provide for the officers of such tourism board; to specify the general powers of such tourism board and its board of directors; to deny to such tourism board any power of taxation or eminent domain; to provide that agreements and obligations undertaken by such tourism board shall not create any obligation or debt of the State of Alabama, Lauderdale County, or any of certain municipalities in the county; to apply to such tourism board certain provisions of the Code of Alabama 1975, as amended, pertaining to tort claims and judgments against local governmental entities; to authorize Lauderdale County, certain municipalities in the county, and certain public agencies, authorities, or bodies to convey to such tourism board, with or without consideration, certain properties and funds owned by any of them; to provide for the continuing distribution to such tourism board, Lauderdale County, and certain municipalities in the county, of certain specified portions of the proceeds of that certain county lodging tax now being levied and collected in Lauderdale County pursuant to Act No. 86-411, as amended, and to provide for the use of the tax proceeds by the recipients thereof; to provide further for the distribution and use of the proceeds of the tax prior to the formation of the tourism board; to exempt such tourism board and the property, income, securities, and certain conveyances and documents thereof from all taxation by the state or any political subdivision thereof; to exempt the gross proceeds of sales of property used by such tourism board from all sales and similar excise taxes in the state, and to exempt such property from all use and similar excise taxes in the state; to exempt such tourism board from all laws of the state governing usury or prescribing or limiting interest rates; to provide for the disposition of the earnings of such tourism board, its dissolution and the disposition thereupon of its assets and properties; and to provide an effective date.